Yosefin and I sat quietly on a cold green metal bench in Maple Gardens. I came here to make up lost time since Kat kept taking all my attention. She sat close enough to lean against me with her arm locked around mine as she played with my hand. I watched her blindly in a brain-dead sort of way. My mind focused solely on how her soft fingers felt against my skin and the blackberry perfume she had on. I got tired of sitting upright, so I leaned on her and rested my face on her shoulder. She momentarily stopped messing with my hand the moment I did that.

“Have you ever worn jewelry before?” Yosefin asked while grabbing my ring and index finger.

“Necklaces, but that’s about it.”

“I think you would look awesome if you had a few rings on your hands.”

“Really?”

“Hell yeah!” She let go of my hand to snuggle more around my arm. “I think I got a couple of rings you can try on. My hands are small, so I think it can fit your pinkies at most.” I looked at my hands to picture how I would look with them.

“How would you wear them? Like on my ring finger?”

“Not if you want to be married.” She touched the same fingers she was playing with, then pinched my thumb. “I would put them there,” she said with her face pressed into my upper arm. “It’ll make you stand out.” That idea gave me thoughts about how I would impress Kat the next time I saw her. I lost myself in picturing what I could do; I didn’t notice Yosefin staring at me with her left eyebrow raised.

“Oh, did you say something?” I stupidly asked.

“Not a word.”

“Oh?”

“Thinking about Kat?” It shocked me how she could know most of everything that went through my head. There wasn’t a need for me to verbally say a word. She knew my answer. “Well, this was fun while it lasted.” The sadness in her voice gave me uncomfortable chills. Her hold on me broke before I could stop it from happening. I didn’t mean to kill the vibe in that type of manner. She scooted away from me and tucked her arms between her legs.

“Yosefin,” I said, closing the gap between us. “Our day hasn’t ended. Why are you acting like this?”

“Josh.”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up,” she told me with a big smile. “Just shut your stupid face up.” The smile she had confused the hell out of me. I couldn’t tell if she was mad or not.

“Okay...”

For a good minute, we kept to ourselves. The wind blew the dead crunchy leaves across the poorly repaired parking lot in front of us. Her hair kept swaying. It was strong and cold, but it didn’t seem to bother her. It slowed into a quiet ambiance while the tree tops around the park continued getting by the wind. She suddenly closed the gap between us, holding my arm again.

“I hate her,” she said, glancing at her phone.

“Why?”

“You know why,” she sighed with a giggle, then got in my face to whisper, “You know exactly why. I’m going to leave it at that. I need to go home.”

I drove Yosefin back home. She mostly kept to herself while looking out her window. There were only a few moments where she looked forward or at me. The second looked over to me our eyes met. A yellow light forced me to look at the road to prepare for a sudden stop. When I came to stop, she began snickering.

“Wie kann ein Typ wie du Interesse an dieser Schlampe finden? (How does a guy like you find interest in that, bitch?“)

“English, please.”

“Sie hat dich in ihren Bann gezogen. Siehst du das nicht? (She has you under her spell. Dont you see it?“)

“Yosefin, what are you saying?”

“It’s nothing,” she said, looking forward.

“Is it?” She didn’t answer until I drove up to her house a minute later.

“I was cramping and didn’t want to alarm you, so I spoke to endure the pain.”

“Oh...” I had forgotten she experienced those phantom cramps every month. It has been months since she commented on them.

“Yeah,” she rolled her eyes. “Lots of pain right now. Lots of it.”

“You better go take your meds quickly. Do you need help getting in?” Something about that made her widely grin. It caught me off guard how big it was.

“Y- Yes! Come help me, please.” She used my left arm as an anchor to help her stand up. With every step she took, she groaned and sometimes breathed through her mouth. Once we got to the door, she opened it up. Her labored breathing suddenly stopped the moment her mother walked past the door. “Momma?!”

“Hello, you two! It’s nice to see you again, Josh. Did you two enjoy your time together?” Mrs. Böhme asked us like she was excited about the answer.

“We did,” Yosefin answered, then faced me. “Thank you for escorting me in.”

“You’re welcome. Now, take your pills so you won’t be in pain anymore,” I say.

“Pills? Yosefin, are you cramping again?” Mrs. Böhme asked her, looking visibly confused.

“Uh. Text me later, yeah?” Yosefin said as she shut the door in my face.

Both of them began talking in German like they were arguing. Yosefin’s voice sounded softer yet quicker than her mother’s. Mrs. Böhme remained at the same volume she spoke to me. The back and forth continued for a moment without slowing down.

I eventually left to go see Kat at her apartment. My time with her wasn’t as active as I would like it to be. A lot was going through my mind at this time. My grades began to dip from high Bs to high Cs. Each day I spent with Kat, the more we dove into sexual cravings for each other. We didn’t once go out to a place to hang out, which I didn’t mind. I wouldn’t mind going somewhere cool, but I never asked for it. Every moment I had with her, Yosefin’s scrutinizing echoed in my mind. It was extremely hard not to hear her voice in my head or picture her angry face every time I wanted to be with Kat.

The day after I hung out with them, I asked if I could have a serious conversation with Kat. She invited me to her apartment to discuss what I wanted to say. We went into her bedroom to talk. Before I could start, she decided to remove her shirt and put on shorts that stopped under her butt.

“What are you doing?” I curiously asked when I sat on the corner of the bed.

“I’m getting comfortable,” Kat said, smiling. “Does this bother you?”

“No, it’s fine,” I said, slowly getting excited.

“So,” she said, lying on the bed while rubbing her arm against my hip. “Is everything okay, Joshua?” Her somewhat half-naked body made me aroused and distracted from what I wanted to say.

I had to close my eyes to say, “What are we?”

“Uh, boyfriend and girlfriend. Duh,” she said, then giggled.

“Are we? Yosefin thinks-”

“Oh my goodness,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You need to purge her out of your mind. She is trying to break us apart.”

“I don’t think she is.”

“Yes, she is.” She slowed down on that last word as if she wanted me to hear it. “She’s just jealous because we’re having fun, Joshua.” Her voice became soft. The way she said my name sounded arousing. She said my name again in the same manner but said it near my ear. “I got something for us.” I felt her hand slowly crawl down my leg. “Whoa! Looks like that thing wants to bulge out.”

“What thing?” I looked down to find her pointing at my dick. “Shit! I’m sorry,” I said, covering it with my forearms.

“Hey, it’s fine, Josh.” She sat up to kiss me on the neck. “Just wear shorts next time. It’ll make it less painful and give you more room.”

“I’ll remember that next time. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” I got another kiss but on the lips this time. “Just the let you know, I admire moments like this.”

“Me too.”

“Hey, let’s do something new?” My heart rate spiked from zero to 60 in two seconds. She reached her left arm behind her to fiddle with her bra. Her bra was unlatched, and she tossed it on the ground. She reached under her pillow to pull out a box of purple-colored condoms to hand me.

“Kat,” I said, lost for words. “You can’t be serious.”

“Come on,” she whined. “Nothing will happen. This is the best I could find.” The label on the box read extra thin grape chocolate flavored. “Babe,” she said in a soft voice before kissing me with her moisturized lips. “I want you.”

Those words shook me to my care. My phone rang the second I thought about commenting on what I didn’t want to do. I saw Yosefin’s name appear on my screen. I didn’t know whether to ignore her or answer it. Kat kept her eyes on me, smiling with the corner of her lip bit. I could see in her eyes she wanted me badly. My body shivered in a pleasant tingle. I decided at that moment, I decided to do it. I got as far as opening the wrap before Yosefin called me again.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“What does that bitch want?” Kat lashed. Calling Yosefin a bitch caught me off, guard. It slightly angered me to hear her call Yosefin that without any good reason. So, I answered my phone out of spite because of killing the mood and her rudeness.

“Yes?” I said with my eyes on Kat and my phone on my ear.

“Josh, hey! I was thinking about you. Whatcha up to?” Yosefin said with a lot of happiness in her voice. Her voice was pitched and her words were slightly hazy in tone and slower than normal.

“I’m,” I paused, looking back at Kat, who was taking off my pants. “Holy shit...”

“Holy shit? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Kat dragged me down to the bed so she could sit over me. She smothered my face with her large, warm, peachy-scented boobs and rubbed them all over my face. “Oh my goodness.”

“Do you like that?” Kat whispered.

“Was that Kat?” Yosefin said. “Are you at her house again?!”

“Let me see that.” Kat took the phone away from me, put it on the bed, then turned it on speaker. “Josh is occupied at the moment, Yosefin. You can call him later.”

“Put him back on the phone!”

“Yosefin, he’s busy! Call him in a few hours!”

“Josh! Get on the phone right now!” Yosefin screamed. I was dazed by the feeling of warm boobs pressing into my face. It took Yosefin several times to yell my name to break me out of my trance.

“I’m right here,” I said like I was drunk.

Kat rested more of her boobs on my face and whispered loudly, “Squeeze them on your face.”

“The fuck is she talking about?” Yosefin said in a loud voice. It almost sounded like she wanted to yell that.

“Yosefin, we’re on a date. Do you mind?” Yosefin stayed silent. I stopped messing with Kat’s boobs to check my phone to see if Yosefin had hung up. The phone call was still going.

“Yosefin,” I said. She didn’t say anything, so I got up and took the phone with me to the kitchen. “Yosefin, are you there?”

“Josh,” she said like she was crying. It was faint, but I wasn’t sure if it truly was.

“Yeah?”

“You sound closer now. Did you put me off speaker?”

“Yeah, I’m in the kitchen right now.”

“God, I fucking hate her! How the hell do you hang out with her? What the fuck was she talking about squeezing them on your face?!”

“Calm down, Yosefin. We were playing around.”

“Dude! I heard how she sounded. What was she talking about?” I covered my mouth so Kat wouldn’t hear what I was going to say.

“She’s talking about her boobs.”

“Josh!” Yosefin screamed. One of her parents in the background yelled at her in German. She shouted back even louder than them. “Were you two about to fuck?!”

“We weren’t. She laid on top of me so I could play with them.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this. You need to head home right now!”

Kat walked into the kitchen to persuade me to come back into the bedroom and hang the phone up. Yosefin screamed with demands not to listen to Kat and let her speak with her. I had to put the phone on speaker so that Yosefin could hear her. Both of them got into a heated argument. They screamed, trash-talked to each other, and dropped multiple f-bombs. It was horrible and scary to listen to. I was terrified Kat’s neighbors would come knocking to see what was happening.

Yosefin said Kat took advantage of my innocence, while Kat disagreed. Kat laughed at her and stated Yosefin worries too much and was acting too overprotective for stupid reasons. She emphasized the fun time we shared but she deliberately kept the dirty details out. Every word that came out of her mouth was carefully said. She used words like love, enjoy, and fun to describe what we’ve done. Yosefin wasn’t buying anything she was putting out. I had enough of their screaming and put an end to the yelling.

“Okay, that’s enough!” I yelled. Kat stopped talking instantly, but Yosefin kept on blabbering. “Yosefin, that’s enough!”

I put the phone off the speaker to speak with her in private outside the apartment. Some of Kat’s neighbors were waiting in the hallway when I left. A few of them went inside her apartment, asking what was going on. Kat got them to settle down. One male neighbor was on the phone with the cops.

“Jesus,” I whispered, moving further away from everyone. “You two have caused a ruckus.”

“Josh, I swear to god! When I see that bitch tomorrow, we’re fighting!” Yosefin yelled.

“Why would you wanna do that?”

“Because she’s a goddamn Sukkubus! (Succubus!) She’s manipulating you for pleasure, Josh! Please, for my sake, fucking leave her. Go home!” The anger and desperation in her voice made me rethink my whole relationship with Kat. It gave fear some sort of repercussion, whether it be fighting or getting punched in the gut again. I recalled nearly every word, every moment where Yosefin felt worried for me. I even thought about the kiss she gave me and the gentle hold back at the student parking lot.

“Okay... I’m leaving.”

“Good!”

“I’ll see you soon.”

“Wait! You’re coming here?”

“Yeah. I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” I hung up before she could tell me that was okay or not, then drove non-stop to her house. My phone rang like ten times the whole trip through. Once I stopped at the curb in front of the house, she walked out the front door with her arms crossed. We met halfway up the walkway.

“Hey,” I said in a weak voice, too timid to look her in the eyes. Her face was a bit red. She had no makeup around her eyes from what I could tell without looking directly.

“Hey,” she said in a softer tone. “What’s up?”

“I don’t know,” I chuckled, not knowing what the hell to say at the moment. “I’m sorry.”

She uncrossed her arms to put her hands on my upper arm, leaned forward on me, and said, “I know you are.” She gazed up at me with her eyes before her head followed suit.

“I got lost.”

“Mhmm.”

“I’m starting to think this’ll not end well.”

“Mhmm,” she hummed longer than the one before. Her lips tightened, including her arms.

“You were right.” Instead of agreeing with me, she leaned me down by pulling down on my shoulders so she could put her arms around my neck for a tight hug. I held her close to my stomach with my chin over her shoulder. “What the hell was I thinking?”

“You gave me a shit ton of stress, you asshole,” she said, letting me go.

“I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted.”

“God,” I groaned to the sky after slapping myself in the forehead to somewhat hurt myself. “I hate myself.”

“Don’t say that,” she said in a gentle voice, almost laughing as she moved my hand back to its side.

“Being with Kat was a mistake. I don’t want any of this.”

“Why the sudden change?”

“Because of you.” I pointed at her chest, nearly touching the fabric of the hoodie. She pointed at herself with both of her fingers with one brow raised. “Yes,” I confirmed. I listed several reasons why I would end my relationship with Kat that day. One of those reasons caused my friendship with Yosefin to become strained. I didn’t want to be disappointed anymore.

“I’m happy you’re becoming aware of your actions,” Yosefin said after she gave me a gentle shoulder nudge to my arm. “Kat was never a good friend. Even though she seemed friendly to you, her intentions are nothing but pleasure.”

“God,” I cringed more, seeing how right Yosefin was. I couldn’t believe how down-bad I stayed in the lustful world. In a strange but grateful way, I saw her as my guardian angel. The one who showed me the light and the stupid errors of my ways. “I can’t believe I almost fucked her,” I said under my breath. The moment I said that, I got several calls and text messages from Kat.

“Excuse me?!” I nodded and turned off my phone so that Kat wouldn’t bother us. “You what?!”

“I was so ready for it,” I chuckle, feeling some regret but happy it didn’t happen. “Even though it was fun, it’s killing my studies and hurting my friendship with you.”

“Gott sei Dank bist du mit ihr fertig (Thank god you’re done with her),” she said, wiping her forehead like she was clearing the sweat off her forehead. “Walk with me.” She took a few steps into the street and then turned around, curling her index finger to make me follow.

“Where are we going?”

“Park.” The second we took a step in the direction of the park together, she asked an intrusive question. “So, what kind of stuff did you guys do together?”

“Dude!” I said out of shock.

“Sorry,” she said several times. “Forget I said that.”

“Why do you want to know the shit we did?”

“I want to know what it sounds like to be in a relationship,” she said softly while looking at the houses to her right. “Even if it is not what I consider,” she added, giving me a side-eye. “You don’t have to. I’m just curious that’s all.”

At first, I didn’t want to say anything but the more I thought about it, I leaked some vague details. Her eagerness filled an ego in me that wanted to show off what I went through. I was extremely scared to tell her every detail, but the more I said the details about it, I realized there was nothing to fear.

I stopped teasing her and waited until we went to the park to talk about the stupid wild experience I went through. She listened to everything without taking her attention off of me or verbally criticizing everything I did. When we got to the tallest tower in the playground, I finished off with what happened half an hour ago.

“What an interesting time you had,” Yosefin momentarily snickered. “To be honest, I’m kind of jealous you got to experience some of those things,” Yosefin said.

“You’re jealous? I thought you hated what I did.”

“I do. You’re fucking stupid. But...”

“But?”

“But,” she chuckled, building my curiosity with smirks and bated breath. “I wish I could experience what you did.” She sat crisscrossed in front of me with her arms resting in her lap. “Just the kissing parts. Screw the other crap y’all did. I would never do that.”

“Bullshit.” Her cheeks were red and she couldn’t stop smiling. “Yes, you would.”

“Okay,” she mumbled. “But I wouldn’t do it right off the bat.”

“Anyways,” I said, rolling my eyes and crisscrossing next to her. “You sound like you’re not confident in getting...” I had to pause to remind myself what she was into. “Boyfriend.”

“I doubt I will,” she sighed, looking to the skies for a time. “It’ll be very hard to find a guy who’s interested in a weirdo.” She continued, “For some reason, I see myself being the dominant one when it comes to it.”

“Oh, really?” I said, raising my left brow. “You? Dominant?”

“I’m about to be nineteen, Josh. I’m ready to pour my heart out. I want to shower a boy with so much affection; he’ll have to force me to settle down” I got butterflies in my stomach hearing her be so open and emotional about how she would act in a relationship. “And, of course, the dirty things we would do. That’s a must-need.”

“Really?” I scoffed in a light chuckle.

“Yes.” She looked at me when she said it. For some odd reason, I felt like she was directing that answer to me as if I were that boy she would want. Was I hot, or did she secretly have feelings for me? I wasn’t about to outright ask her if she liked me or not at that time, but I had to ask one question for my understanding.

“Yosefin,” I said.

“Yeah?” I decided not to ask about it last minute. Our day was stressful, and if I asked her that question, it could add to it.

“I forgot what I was going to say.”

“Okay,” she smiled before letting out a short giggle. “Well, when you remember, tell me.” She shimmied herself in that oh-so-familiar snuggle she loved to do. “Hey, can I ask a serious question?”

“Hmm?” I said instead of complaining about her wanting the okay to ask a question.

“I’m lucky to have you as my friend. How should I approach making another friend?” She let go to clasp her hands. “Should I tell outright what I am?”

“Yosefin,” I said, trying my best to not laugh at her. The question reminded me of her situation with Monov. I had a feeling that question would come up several times if her insecurities came into question. So, I told her to stop worrying. Then she reminded me again about the moment I stopped talking to her when she told me she was Yose. “Okay, fine. Tell them upfront, but you can’t keep using that reason.”

“I don’t want to have it happen again.”

“It won’t.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re awesome,” I blurted after stuttering. I listed everything about her I liked and things someone could enjoy if they got to know her. I said whoever she finds could be more fun to be around than me.

“No one can be better than you,” she said, tickling my ribcage and then snuggling on my arm.

“Why do you keep doing this?”

“Was that your initial question?” She giggled.

“No.”

“Oh. Is it bothersome?”

“Not at all. I don’t mind it. I just wanted to know.”

I never got the answer. We stayed together till dusk, talking about the dos and don’ts of the day when Yosefin would make a new friend. After I walked her home and finally returned home and turned on my phone, I had several missed messages from Kat and a couple of texts from my sister regarding my whereabouts. I marked all Kat’s messages as read, then went through my gallery to permanently delete any naked or lewdful images I saved of her. There was some solace in losing all those wonderful pictures, but I knew I would regret not seeing some of them. She was fun to be around, but all good things must come to an end. It was a hard pill to swallow, yet it saved my friendship with my best friend.

“I need a distraction,” I said, lying on my bed, blindly staring at the ceiling. I got my wish in a video call a second later. “I had a feeling you’d call,” I answered without seeing who it was. Yosefin hummed in a playful chuckle that made me somewhat mimic it. “Miss me?”

She nodded and smiled before saying, “I did.”